Marvel Studios at Comic-Con 2014

We saw footage from the 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' and here's what we thought.

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For Comic-Con 2014 news outlets continuously reported news regarding updates on DC Comic’s live action properties. Their television shows: Arrow, Flash, Constantine, and Gotham, were the big shows talked about at this year, and of course the big reveals for Batman v. Superman Dawn of Justice. The amount of news coming in from DC Comics and Warner Bros. was like an endless river of information that excited fan boys.

Marvel Studios on the other hand likes to deliver their exclusive news in a one two punch. Since Comic-Con 2012, when the cast of Avengers assembled on stage Marvel has always gone big for Comic-Con, whether it is cast appearances, footage, revealing upcoming movies, etc… the movie studio always delivers something awesome to reward Comic-Con attendees who have stuck around Hall H from the morning to night. This year was no exception.

Unlike Warner Bros. hush, hush exclusive sneak peak at Batman v. Superman Dawn of Justice, Comic-Con attendees had an idea that Marvel Studios would promote Ant-Man, since Michael Douglas who plays Henry Pym dropped hints two weeks prior to Comic-Con that he would be attending the Saturday panel, and Avengers Age of Ultron. Prior to Saturday pane in Hall H the Marvel booth handed out the first official movie posters for Ant-Man and different character posters for Avengers Age of Ultron. Throughout the convention a new character poster featuring an Avenger was passed out to attendees, by Saturday evening all the movie posters could be assembled together to form a large panoramic movie poster for Avengers Age of Ultron. The full poster features all the Avengers, including newcomers Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch, battling a hoard of Ultron drones. Standing in the far background is a glimpse of another Avenger the android Vision.

The Marvel Studios panel started off with a montage video of movie clips from Phase I and II, and ends with a new close-up shot of Thanos. After the video executive producer Kevin Feige was welcomed on stage who then introduced the new director for Ant-Man Peyton Reed followed by the cast: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, both making their Comic-Con debuts, Evangeline Lilly, who was confirmed to play an original character for the film Hope Van Dyne Pym, the daughter of Hank Pym, and Corey Stoll confirmed to play the villain Darren Cross, aka Yellowjacket.

The Ant-Man panel was brief, approximately thirteen minutes long, but the studio play a new clip featuring Hank Pym’s lab, and visual effects test footage of Ant-Man attempting to sneak into a secured building and trying to communicate with flying ants. You can watch the Ant-Man portion of the Marvel Panel here, courtesy of Flicks and the City.

Immediately following Ant-Man is of course next summer’s big blockbuster hit Avengers Age of Ultron. Walking up on stage with Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” playing in the background, the cast of the film was introduced in order: Robert Downey Jr., throwing roses to the crowd and handing them to the ladies of the cast, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Cobie Smulders, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans, Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Paul Bettany, James Spader, and Elizabeth Olsen. The cast present in Hall H was greeted by screams and standing ovations followed by a brief Q&A by panel moderator Chris Hardwick. Two notable absences at the panel were director Joss Whedon, who recently underwent surgery and was recuperating in London, and Scarlet Johansson, who is obliviously expecting her first child. Fortunately for the fans, Scarlett did deliver a quick video message wishing she could be at Comic-Con. In the video she went to say, “Hey Kevin, play the video.” Behold, the world premiere trailer for Avengers Age of Ultron.

The video that was shown features the Avengers, including Don Cheadle as James Rhodey, celebrating a victory inside Avengers Tower. As party continues members of the Avengers attempt to lift Thor’s hammer. The funniest attempt coming from Tony and Rhodey trying to lift the hammer together, and the only Avenger who comes close to lifting Thor’s hammer is Captain America. The party immediate gets crashed when Ultron walks in and literally blows up the room. A full theatrical trailer is shown which features many actions sequences of all the Avengers, big explosion from around the world, and a close-up of Ultron sitting in his metallic throne. The trailer ends with Tony Stark waking up next to Captain America’s shattered shield and all of the Avengers fallen in defeat by Thanos.

As the lights came up on Hall H Thanos himself Josh Brolin was welcomed on stage wearing an Infinity Gauntlet courtesy of Hasbro. He asked for a rose by Robert Downey Jr. who then immediately munched down on the rose. Just as the crowd began to leave panel, Kevin Feige dropped one more teaser to end the evening. A video clip of James Gunn and Chris Pratt confirming a sequel to Guardians of The Galaxy will be released in July 28, 2017. You can watch the Avengers Age of Ultron portion of the panel here.

For those who were not lucky enough to see the Hall H panel the Marvel booth did reveal to important props on Saturday: Ant-Man’s helmet and Captain America’s broken shield. As usual, Marvel Studios went big at Comic-Con, both inside Hall H and in the exhibitor hall. Hopefully in the upcoming months Marvel will drop more movie news and announce their slate of movies for Phase III.

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Derek Lee, graduated at San Francisco State University with a degree in broadcasting and electronic communications. Derek has background experience in writing for the media. He has written segments for “Under San Francisco,” and was the liaison between the production crew and the writing staff. Derek also writes stories on Blogger.com, and co-hosted an entertainment/variety radio show where he talked about television and comics on KSFS.